Which to buy · Every setting
Breville Smart Grinder Pro vs Rancilio Rocky
Conical against flat — the Smart Grinder Pro's scale curves where the other runs straight. The Smart Grinder Pro is numbered 1–60; the Rocky is numbered 0–55.
Which to buy
Choose the
Smart Grinder Pro if you…
- want a timer in 0.2-second steps, set by shots or cups
- grind into a portafilter — 50–54 mm and 58 mm cradles come with it
- want to buy new
Choose the
Rocky if you…
- are buying used — Rancilio no longer sells it new
- want 50 mm flat steel burrs
- dose by hand — it has no programmable doses
Shop links are affiliate links: BrewMark earns a commission if you buy through one, at no extra cost to you. The verdicts were written without regard to it.
Rancilio no longer lists the Rocky (its page now returns 404) and sells the Stile as its home grinder, so you'd be buying the Rocky used.
Sources: Breville — Smart Grinder Pro · Breville — Smart Grinder Pro manual · Rancilio Group — Rocky (archived Jan 2022) · Rancilio Group — Rocky SD specifications (archived May 2022) · Rancilio Group — Stile
| Smart Grinder Pro | Rocky | |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | Breville | Rancilio |
| Scale | Numbered dial | Numbered dial |
| Dial range | 1 – 60 | 0 – 55 |
| Burrs | Conical | Flat |
| Espresso → filter | 27 numbers | 20 numbers |
| Filter → coarse | 15.8 numbers | 23 numbers |
The same number means different things
Both grinders use a numbered dial, which makes it tempting to copy a number straight across. Setting 28 sits at grind index 28.4 on the Smart Grinder Pro but 47.5 on the Rocky — far enough apart to change the cup.
Converting a setting
If a recipe quotes a setting for one of these grinders, read across for the equivalent on the other. Rows are spaced evenly by grind size, not by dial number — on a conical burr those are not the same thing.
| Smart Grinder Pro | Rocky |
|---|---|
| 15 | 5 |
| 16 | 9 |
| 23 | 18 |
| 35 | 22 |
| 44 | 26 |
| 50 | 29 |
| 54 | 32 |
| 57 | 36 |
| 58 | 39 |
| Rocky | Smart Grinder Pro |
|---|---|
| 5 | 15 |
| 9 | 16 |
| 14 | 16 |
| 18 | 23 |
| 22 | 35 |
| 26 | 44 |
| 29 | 50 |
| 32 | 54 |
| 36 | 57 |
| 39 | 58 |
| 42 | 58 |
| 45 | 58 |
| 48 | 58 |
Side by side, by brew method
Where each grinder lands for the same brew, worked out from its own dial curve.
| Method | Smart Grinder Pro | Rocky |
|---|---|---|
| Espresso | 12 | 8 |
| Moka pot | 16 | 13 |
| AeroPress (short steep) | 23 | 18 |
| Pour over — V60 / cone | 41 | 24 |
| Siphon | 44 | 26 |
| Pour over — flat bottom | 46 | 27 |
| Steep and release — Clever / Switch | 48 | 28 |
| Drip / batch brew | 50 | 29 |
| Cupping | 51 | 30 |
| Chemex | 54 | 32 |
| French press | 58 | 38 |
| Cold brew | 58 | 44 |
The shape of each dial
Where the connectors bunch, that grinder’s dial is compressed and single steps count for more. Comparing the two shapes tells you which gives finer control, and where.
Breville Smart Grinder Pro
Rancilio Rocky
Dialing in the Smart Grinder Pro
Sixty settings sounds like fine control and mostly is not — the useful espresso territory compresses into the bottom handful of steps, and there is an internal burr adjustment most owners never touch that shifts the whole scale. If the finest setting still pulls fast, the internal adjustment is the fix, not the outer dial. Filter and French press, by contrast, are well served and easy to hit.
Dialing in the Rocky
A stepped espresso grinder that has been the budget recommendation for a very long time. The 55 steps across 50mm flat burrs are its limitation — for espresso you will sometimes want a setting between two of them and there is not one, and a single step can move a shot by seconds. Twenty of those steps cover espresso through filter, which is more resolution than the fine end usually gets at this price. Two things make it an espresso grinder in practice rather than a general one: changing setting means holding the locking lever while twisting the hopper, and it keeps a couple of grams in the chute, so every switch between espresso and pour over costs you both fiddling and coffee. Most owners pick one end and stay there.